50 Books Challenge 2026 Part Five

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the fifth thread of the 50 Books Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2026, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

If possible, please can you embolden your titles and maybe authors as well of books you've read or going to read as this makes it much easier to keep track of books or authors that may appeal (or not appeal) to everyone else.

Some of us bring over our updated lists to the new thread. Again, this is up to you.

The first thread of the year is here the second thread here, the third thread here and the fourth thread

Thank you for this- I had this put aside as a book for lying by the pool on holiday next week but it just sounds annoying so I’ll pass.

Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

Set in Virginia in a rural county where farmers are intent on spraying everything with weed killer or hunting coyotes. There are three different threads to this story with different main characters and they start to overlap.

Not all that much happens, I don't have much plot to tell you about, but with Barbara Kingsolver it's really about the characters and the place and the little details.

I gave it 5/5, not quite sure if it's a bold or not...

A bit slow going for me at the moment thanks to my epic Robert Moses audiobook, but found time for a welcome reread:

28 Three Men In A Boat - Jerome K Jerome

One of those faultless books that it turns out is utterly perfect for reading during a disgusting heatwave.

Clearly I live under a rock as Yesteryear had bypassed me, but having read Eine's review it sounds like that's not a bad thing!

It seriously is everywhere you look and has been for at least a month. It’s sold millions. I did it on Spotify.

I have heard of it but not drawn to it.

Just finished Sally Magnusson's The Shapeshifter's Daughter. This is about woman, dying of cancer, who returns to her childhood Orkney. But it is also a reimagining of Norse mythology (I am not terribly au fait with Norse gods but many are - i am sure in part thanks to Marvel films!)

She writes well and I like that Magnusson always has older women as her central characters. This is about death , grief and grieving but it isn't bleak. I liked this. Not loved but a fine book. The Norse stuff at the beginning takes a bit of wading through.

I don't use Spotify but obviously I have been very unobservant! I have been in bookshops too....

I commented on Yesteryear too, though i am still reading it. Tbh I am surprised that so many of you would dismiss it on one review! I'm enjoying it and learning quite a lot about the influencer world and the tricks they use.

A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel is in the deals today.

Careless People -Sarah Winn Williams

I started this a year ago but went back to finish it after listening to Emily Maitlis interviewing her on The Newsagents podcast this week. I would say it’s astonishing stuff but somehow I wasn’t surprised by it.

This is an extraordinary book - even more so than Wolf Hall, I think - highly recommended.

Yeah I didn’t want to comment on your comment because you’re still reading.

My review is only one opinion and lots of people have absolutely loved it.

Didn’t we also disagree on The Correspondent?

Agree

I'm mildly interested in reading both Yesteryear and The Correspondent, but not enough to wait in the 6m+ library queue or to pay for them. I reckon in a few years the book exchanges and chazzas will have loads and I have so much on my tbr already anyway.

I worked in a charity bookshop for a number of years by far the books that we had tonnes of were :

Fifty Shades
Da Vinci Code
Sharon Osbourne’s autobiography
Posh Spice’s autobiography

One of my book club friends is desperate for me to read Yesteryear so we can discuss. I'm assuming it will pop up in the deals sooner or later. I saw a thing the author did on Insta dissing all the "male authors finally returning" rhetoric about last year's Booker such made me warm to her. The Correspondent is actually good, IMO.

I also thought I should read Careless People after seeing the Emily Mathis interview @BestIsWest. Just depressing how these people operate.

The List Of Suspicious Things
My misgivings were proved correct, I’m afraid. It’s just so dull! Random Yorkshire dialogue thrown in, cliffhangers that aren’t really cliffhangers….Who.Will.Be.The.Next.Suspect??????….who cares?
I just found it very, very amateur and clunky, not a patch on other books written from the pov of a child/child in the 70s. I had, however, forgotten all about the charming game ‘Ripper Chase’ where boys wore their coats as capes I’m the same age as Miv, with the same kind of upbringing but it left me cold and bored. I think she tried to shoehorn in too much social history on top of the Yorkshire Ripper intrigue.

I wonder if Yesteryear has been a victim of it's own hype. I haven't read it yet but heard of it a few months ago via a substack that I follow that looks at the tradwife phenomenon and how it fits with other cultural movements and societal shifts. Thought it sounded interesting and added it to my wishlist. Then, as others have said, it seems to be EVERYWHERE and expectations are maybe rather higher than they should be?

I'll come back once I've read it (definitely agree it's got to be a 99p deal waiting to happen)

The audio was free with my Spotify Premium account so I avoided spending any money on it

i think the way it’s discussed portrays it as having more depth than it actually does…

It’s not news that influencers are not necessarily how they appear

38 The Sea Sisters - Louise Douglas Someone else recently reviewed this and I have similar feelings - not great, though at least the central mystery seems to have at last been resolved after being dragged out over four books! A private detective agency with only one case to deal with (in a pretty inept manner too) does not seem at all realistic, and the main character is a total drip (except when she’s being a bitch to the lovely guy who for some reason is in love with her), which doesn’t help. For all that, it passed the time nicely and provided a decent sense of place with its Brittany tourist town setting.

It was me @DuPainDuVinDuFromage ! I loved the first one and a two book series would have been fine to wrap everything up 😀

I think I’m a sort of slump. I have four books on the go and I quite like all of them but picking them up for a concerted push to finish one seems to be beyond me just now.

I can’t even start one!

Realistically, I’m not well and that’s why

I’m so frustrated though

Aargh, I’m sorry, Eine ❤️

@SheilaFentiman I have stared at Page 1 of so many different books now, I’ve had to accept defeat